Woods shot a third-round 5-under 67 and leads Graeme McDowell by four shots entering the final round, and his putts were disappearing all day long - seven birdies overall.

On the par-4 17th however, it was his tee shot that disappeared - into a palm tree.

Marshals actually found the ball, lodged high above in the tree, and they were able to identify it by the stripe Woods applies in black marker.

He had to take an unplayable lie (with a penalty stroke), dropped a ball, hit his third onto the green and two-putted for bogey.

"When everyone was pointing up there - the gallery, media, officials, markers, everybody was just pointing up in the tree," Woods said about when he knew he was stuck up a tree. "And it got to a point where I was probably about, maybe 60 yards away, and I could see the ball in the tree, identified with binoculars and saw my line on the ball. I took a drop and unfortunately it wasn't the lie I needed to play the shot. I hit a hell of a shot just to keep it on the green. But yeah, it's been a very interesting last couple weeks. I had two lost balls last week and then I got one stuck in the tree this week."